psychological portraits

The Oscars are coming...Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises and Russian tattoos...
A couple of years ago in march I spent my birthday in new york. I went to the Russian Samovar for caviar, aspic, herring and vodka. It was snowing (!) and absolutely amazing. There is something wonderfully seductive about the lounge, the red lights glow amidst all the people smoking, laughing and comfortably hanging out.

In a similar night, I had a great Russian dinner at Restaurant Pasternak in Berlin. Named after Boris Pasternak, the author of Doctor Zhivago, for which the movie version in 1966 won 5 Oscars, including one for cinematography and one for art direction.

These restaurants and movies are all about ambiance, mood and getting in. Presenting a psychological portrait. of a person. or of a place.

Image, Donald Weber

Documentary photographer Donald Weber's images of life in Russia are haunting, saturated with color and evocative. Based out of Kiev and Moscow, he was recently awarded a spot in PDN's 30 of 2008. He's also worked as an architect and he was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007. smart